Ben Carson calls slaves 'immigrants'
by Brianna Chambers, Cox Media Group National Content Desk
5 minutes ago
WASHINGTON --
While speaking to agency employees on Monday, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson referred to slaves as "immigrants" with hopes and dreams who "worked ... harder for less."
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While talking about the promise of the American dream and the country's status as the land of opportunity, the former neurosurgeon said slaves served as a good example of groups of people who achieved much with little in the United States.
"That's what America is about," Carson said. "A land of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great grandsons, great granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land."

This isn't Carson's first public mention of slaves.
In 2013, he called the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, "the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery."
"It is slavery in a way because it is making all of us subservient to the government, and it was never about health care," he said at the time. "It was about control."
Carson, 65, also spoke on Monday about the human brain.
"Every human being, regardless of their ethnicities, or their background, they have a brain, the human brain," he said. "There is nothing in this universe that even begins to compare with the human brain ... I could take the oldest person here, make a little hole right here on the side of the head, and put some depth electrodes into their hippocampus and stimulate and they would be able to recite back to you, verbatim, a book they read 60 years ago."

Saying such a thing glosses over the atrocity of how people were sold and forced across the ocean to live and work in captivity, with no rights, no freedom, no dignity...not comparable to the situation other immigrants to our country found themselves in. I can't believe that was Carson's intent or that he somehow doesn't understand the reality surrounding the slave trade. Far be it for me to try and fix what he said, Carson has said some strange things before.

Ultimately, both early European immigrants and African slaves as well as immigrants wanting to come to our country today want better lives not just for themselves, but for their future generations and in Carson's capacity at HUD and addressing HUD employees, it was their job to assist as a means to that end; which sounded like the point Carson was making.

Full speech passage in question:

quote:…after all this is America. This used to be known as the can-do-society, not the what-can-you-do-for-me society, but the can-do-society. And there is a lot that we can do if we are simply willing to reach outside of ourselves and recognize that each person, all of our fellow men, all of our fellow Americans – we are one. It’s called the United States of America. Think about that the next time you want to be mean to somebody, because there is no reason to do it. And go to Ellis Island one of these days if you haven’t been there and go through that museum on Ellis Island. And look at the pictures of all those people who are hanging up there from every part of the world many of them carrying all their earthly belongings in their two hands not knowing what this country held for them. Look at the determination in their eyes, people who worked not 5 days a week, but 6 or 7 days a week, not 8 hours a day, but 10, 12, 16 hours a day – no such thing as a minimum wage. They worked not for themselves, but for their sons and their daughters and their grandsons and granddaughters so they might have an opportunity in this land. That’s what America is about, a land of dreams and opportunity. There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships - worked even longer, even harder for less, but they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great grandsons, great granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land. And do you know of all the nations in the world, this one, the United States of America, is the only one big enough and great enough to allow all those people to realize their dream. And this is our opportunity to enhance that dream.

quote:Whatever....they both used the word "immigrants" and they both intended to be positive. If you want to read into Obama's as being "more correct" than Carson...so be it. All things considered, this should be a non issue...a non story.

As I said, neither are terribly great analogies for immigrants, but words matter, and there are differences. But you are right, there are plenty of other more worrisome things to be concerned about coming out of this administration.

Ben Carson is a math/science guy - not language. From my observation he may be on the spectrum.

But what he said was no worse than Obama did; he is just nowhere near as eloquent. And he backtracked the next day to make himself clearer.

As many have said; why in the world is this becoming WWIII in the press? He is not advocating human hippocampal stimulation as an interrogation method - though Trump may soon claim that Obama had his (Trump's) hippocampus tapped.

And my other take - the FBI did monitor Trump. They f**ng monitor everyone. I'm sure Trump is monitoring people. This is America - we've been spying since 1776. Anyone who thinks otherwise is naive

quote:As many have said; why in the world is this becoming WWIII in the press?

Because it's another knuckleheaded statement to add to the pile of ineloquence. Between Devos, Perry, Carson, Spicer, and Trump himself, this administration has been saying "oh that's not what we meant when we said that" for over a month now. It's like a whole administration filled with Dan Quayles. Ultimately it's not important, but if you can't say what you mean, credibility begins to erode.

quote:As many have said; why in the world is this becoming WWIII in the press?

Because it's another knuckleheaded statement to add to the pile of ineloquence. Between Devos, Perry, Carson, Spicer, and Trump himself, this administration has been saying "oh that's not what we meant when we said that" for over a month now. It's like a whole administration filled with Dan Quayles. Ultimately it's not important, but if you can't say what you mean, credibility begins to erode.

Bob - some other comments made have been offensive on a policy basis. This guy just needs a good screenwriter. He is not stupid like Quayle; just not good at expressing his viewpoint. I really think he has Aspergers

quote:Bob - some other comments made have been offensive on a policy basis. This guy just needs a good screenwriter. He is not stupid like Quayle; just not good at expressing his viewpoint. I really think he has Aspergers

I'm not an expert, but I am relatively familiar with Autism and Aspergers (I live with an expert) and I disagree. This theory made the rounds a few years ago in an attempt to jive Carson's brilliance as a surgeon, with his baffling public statements and opinions. A person can study and become exceptional at a skill or in a field, and still be vapidly ignorant in other topics.

quote:Bob - some other comments made have been offensive on a policy basis. This guy just needs a good screenwriter. He is not stupid like Quayle; just not good at expressing his viewpoint. I really think he has Aspergers

I'm not an expert, but I am relatively familiar with Autism and Aspergers (I live with an expert) and I disagree. This theory made the rounds a few years ago in an attempt to jive Carson's brilliance as a surgeon, with his baffling public statements and opinions. A person can study and become exceptional at a skill or in a field, and still be vapidly ignorant in other topics.

The bigger question is whether Ben is even qualified for the job he was gifted by Trump. As a surgeon that dosen't make him qualified for his current position. He is now in the position of administrator of a major secretariat. He's in a field outside of his background and skill level. Kind of like having an accountant playing surgeon.

"Dr. Carson feels he has no government experience, he's never run a federal agency," Williams said. "The last thing he would want to do was take a position that could cripple the presidency."

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